Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events: Season 3 Review

ASOUE Season 3 sticks the landing with a fortunately great season.

By Jonathon Dornbush

Netflix’s adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events needed to see its story through to the end. The third season based on the 13-book series is its best yet, with a fantastic sense of pacing, every opportunity taken to indulge in a bit of fun wordplay, and its continued, incredible ability to set up moments of joy only for the realities of the Baudelaires’ world to come crashing down around them.

Adapting books 10-13 — The Slippery Slope, The Grim Grotto, The Penultimate Peril, and The End — Season 3 picks up from Season 2’s literal cliffhanger (Violet and Klaus hurtling off the side of a cliff in a runaway cart) and almost never lets up its pace. Even though emotional and narrative payoff obviously doesn’t come full circle until the last few episodes, the four episodes adapting Slope and Grotto do a surprising job of being both satisfying in their own right and in how they integrate the overarching story.

Slope immediately sets the season off on a strong note by introducing new forces on both the Baudelaires’ and Count Olaf’s sides. After being teased in the Season 2 finale, Kit Snicket (Allison Williams) appears in full force to aid the children in their continued investigation into their past. Unfortunate Events has made a habit of offering the Baudelaires maternal figures, only to lose them just when life is starting to look a bit brighter. Kit certainly fits that role this time around, but as a member of the Snicket clan, it’s a delight to watch Kit’s own intentions come to light as Williams gives the role such intrigue and warmth.

Neil Patrick Harris gives Count Olaf some welcome depth this season.

On the other side of the VFD coin is the duo returning to Olaf’s life. The Man with a Beard But No Hair (Richard E. Grant) and the Woman with Hair But No Beard (Beth Grant) are former mentors of the villainous Count, and their return offers Neil Patrick Harris a chance to give the series’ Big Bad some welcome depth. We’re so used to seeing Olaf’s pompous, menacing attitude, but watching him flounder when he’s truly not in charge for the first time while also wanting to prove himself to those surrogate parents is fascinating. Harris’ performance has been consistently great across the series, but I worried whether the third season could stick the landing with such an iconic villain. Giving Harris more varied material to work with only elevates the more villainous side of the show, which could have otherwise been a rote rehash of past episodes.

And speaking of performances, the Baudelaires continue to simultaneously warm and break my heart in Season 3. Violet and Klaus are increasingly driven to the edge, and it’s riveting to watch as they grasp at the last bits of hope in their lives while also giving in to their mounting frustration with the world. And Sunny, finally coming into her own, gets a sweet subplot with the Hook-Handed Man, and continues to be more of a thorn in Olaf’s side than any baby should.

New Girl's Max Greenfield gives several great performances.

Unfortunate Events has consistently made some of its most earnest characters immediately endearing, and all the more heartbreaking when some sort of tragedy befalls them. That trend continues in this final season, particularly with a set of performances by New Girl’s Max Greenfield as the managers of the Hotel Denouement in The Penultimate Peril’s two episodes. He plays multiple characters, and one of them had me smiling with joy I knew would never ultimately be fulfilled and tearing up when those hopes of happiness were dashed, in just a few minutes of screentime.

Greenfield’s performances are just one piece of a larger, riveting whole that makes the two episodes adapting The Penultimate Peril my favorite of the entire series. What could have served as a satisfying ending to the series as a whole, Peril’s two parts play out in wildly different but consistently tense fashion. The first episode is a taut mystery in which the Baudelaires must discover who they can trust in the hotel, and why exactly almost everyone they’ve ever known since their parents died has come into their lives. Playing with time, a breadcrumb trail of clues, and a revolving door of cameos, the episode zips by without relief, culminating in a shocking ending.

The Penultimate Peril two-parter is brilliantly paced.

The episode that follows is more of a hotel-turned-courtroom drama, with Olaf and the Baudleaires’ story laid out to determine who is truly guilty in all the horrors that have been left in their wake. It’s a clever take on how the nature of truth and facts can be twisted to suit multiple sides of the same story, presenting the macabre but all too real idea that life isn’t always fair, even when everything seems so simple and clean.

The powerful two-parter segues into The End, a largely worthy culmination to a story packed to the brim with mystery and almost-revealed answers. Much of the information you’d hope to learn about the Baudelaires and VFD, as well as some you wouldn’t expect, is laid bare in a mostly emotionally satisfying finale. Because The Penultimate Peril revisits so much of the show’s past, the fact that The End is surprisingly devoid of anyone but the principal cast makes it feel somewhat empty. But it smartly and economically employs all three Baudelaires, Olaf, and Kit to bring this winding, lengthy history of love and deceit to an end.

Anchoring everything is Patrick Warburton’s performance as Lemony Snicket. The joy of hearing his wordplay is matched by the pathos he evokes as Snicket’s telling of this story winds down. This season really opens a door into Snicket’s past, allowing us to see why he’s so riveted by the Baudelaires’ story, There’s such a sincere desire to hope for some brighter future have before in his delivery, and yet the melancholic defeat that there’s probably little to be done is just as apparent. The Baudelaires have, of course, been the heart of the series and its story, but Snicket’s involvement, as it’s grown and evolved, has become one of my favorite elements of the show, and a fitting, meta-narrative way to tie everything together.

The Verdict

A Series of Unfortunate Events delivers its tightest, most exciting season yet in its final run of episodes. By deepening the characterizations of the Baudelaires, Lemony Snicket, and Count Olaf, the main cast gets plenty of great material to work with and delivers uniformly moving performances. Combined with some of the most tense and exciting episodes of the series, the third and final season of Lemony Snicket’s tale not only sticks the landing but beautifully nails the haunting, happy-sad tone the show has evoked since its debut.